Lightening The Load

Travel often bears the brunt of anger when it comes to carbon emissions. These resorts are doing something about it…

As travellers have grown more eco-conscious, so too have hotels and resorts taken note. While for the big hotel groups this means a commitment to phasing out single-use plastic products (at best), a few and ever-increasing number of individual resorts have developed a 360° approach to sustainability, pioneering a way of operating that’s more holistic in nature.

At Zuri Zanzibar, environmental consideration has been applied to everything from the décor (made from recycled materials) and use of lowenergy lighting, to an alternative in-room cooling system, which reduces energy consumption by up to 75%. The resort has also developed an innovative onsite water programme using ozone technology and a desalination system, enabling it to operate without relying on the water resources of its local village, for whom it helps build and maintain wells and educates on the subject of water management, environmental protection, and conservation.

Also deeply committed to supporting its local community is the Green Globecertified Rockhouse Hotel in Negril, Jamaica. In 2004 its owner established the Rockhouse Foundation, since investing over $7 million in building, renovating, and expanding the town’s six public schools, while members of the community produce all the hotel’s woodwork, candles, and bath amenities in workshops held onsite. Additionally, the water here is heated exclusively by solar power; the bungalows constructed from local timber and cut stone; and the falling rainwater harvested and used to irrigate the hotel’s organic farm and plant nursery.

On Cambodia’s southern coast lies the beautiful Song Saa Private Island, dotted across two small rainforest isles in the middle of a 100-hectare marine reserve, which Song Saa helped to establish. In this little slice of paradise, each villa was built from recycled timber, sourced from discarded ships at a nearby estuary, while furniture is fashioned from driftwood, claimed from local beaches. The entire flooring is comprised of salvaged timber from defunct factories across Thailand and Cambodia. A similar approach was taken to the villas’ interiors. Decorative and ornamental pieces are made by local artisans, primarily from washed-up bamboo root, while old oil drums have been turned into chandeliers.

Song Saa also has a purpose-built system that processes sewage waste and recycles non-sewage water, ensuring that absolutely nothing enters the sea. All food waste is also run through a composting system, before being used in the island’s organic gardens as fertiliser. Meanwhile, the welfare of communities local to Song Saa is maintained by the Song Saa Foundation.

Nowhere treads quite as lightly as Six Senses Svart. Perched on poles above a crystalline fjord at the foot of a mighty glacier in Norway, the 94-room hotel is the first building to be designed and built in accordance with the highest energy efficiency standards in the northern hemisphere. When it opens next year, it will harvest enough solar energy to power the hotel building and its operations – rendering it independent from the power grid.

“The vision for Svart is so much bigger than the project itself; we are trying to use it as a showcase of what can be achieved in terms of sustainability and energy solutions. It’s demonstrating to the guest what we can do, and the extent of what can be done, to really get people thinking about it. I’ve been a vocal critic of the hospitality industry and hotels in general because not enough has been done in these areas,” outlines Ivaylo Lefterov, the hotel’s Development Director.

One hotel group that cannot be accused of being idle is Soneva, a true pioneer of responsible luxury and a fine example of how guiding principles can be applied to multiple properties. Its trio of high luxury, low impact resorts (two in the Maldives, one in Thailand) all adhere to strict environmental guidelines – from the materials used to the food that’s served – and each has an on-site facility to manage and recycle waste. Furthermore, the Soneva Foundation was launched over a decade ago to have a positive social, economic, and environmental impact across a broad range of concerns. One such concern relates to maintaining the natural beauty of the Maldives, at threat from plastic litter that ends up in the ocean, smothering coral reefs and endangering marine life. In response, Soneva Namoona was an ambitious programme devised to reimagine waste management across the island archipelago, a process that involved Soneva engaging its island neighbours and senior government officials.

The model it engineered has been adopted across the whole of Baa Atoll (containing 13 inhabited islands), while single-use plastics have since been banned country-wide.

Further proof that where there’s a will, there’s always a way to do things better.